True, even Anime these days has devolved into a bunch of crap, gone are the days of stuff like "Apocalypse Zero" where people got their heads used as nipple pasties, now it's all a bunch of cute people doing cute things.

Straight to doom:True, even Anime these days has devolved into a bunch of crap, gone are the days of stuff like "Apocalypse Zero" where people got their heads used as nipple pasties, now it's all a bunch of cute people doing cute things.

Nine of ten new anime are constructed using lists of fetishes taken from Japanese TVTropes, or a percentile table assembled by Japanese Gary Gygax. One girl with glasses, one loud excitable girl, at least one with enormous tits, one "adorably" shy girl, one psychotic girl who secretly likes the nonentity that serves as the nexus of this bullshiat... I don't know where the next Cowboy Bebop or Ghost in the Shell is coming from, but it sure isn't Japan.

/yes, glasses and tits are character traits in anime//that's part of the problem

Anonymous Bosch:Straight to doom: True, even Anime these days has devolved into a bunch of crap, gone are the days of stuff like "Apocalypse Zero" where people got their heads used as nipple pasties, now it's all a bunch of cute people doing cute things.

Nine of ten new anime are constructed using lists of fetishes taken from Japanese TVTropes, or a percentile table assembled by Japanese Gary Gygax. One girl with glasses, one loud excitable girl, at least one with enormous tits, one "adorably" shy girl, one psychotic girl who secretly likes the nonentity that serves as the nexus of this bullshiat... I don't know where the next Cowboy Bebop or Ghost in the Shell is coming from, but it sure isn't Japan.

/yes, glasses and tits are character traits in anime//that's part of the problem

I learned by trying to follow some recent JRPGs how horrible of story-tellers the modern Japanese culture is. I know that is a very broad statement, but I am only speaking in generalities. Their culture is full of xenophobic old people. They are dying as is their culture. It is now a wasteland of consumerism, advertising and rape.

I agree about the next big thing not coming from them. I don't know if it will come from America either. We are dying as a culture too, but not nearly as quickly. We do have some resistance to the corporate homogenizing of us all, if only in small pockets.

Most of American TV is shiat and has always been so. But we are actually in a golden period for tv or are at the end of it, I think. Hollywood has been as vapid and useless as Japanese TV for a decade or two as has our mainstream music industry, but tv has a few gems.

You guys seriously need to go look at Gaki No Tsukai. Funniest damn thing on TV in years, positively Japanese and full of middle-aged men getting kicked in the butt by Thai boxers. Good way to kill a weekend.

Straight to doom:True, even Anime these days has devolved into a bunch of crap, gone are the days of stuff like "Apocalypse Zero" where people got their heads used as nipple pasties, now it's all a bunch of cute people doing cute things.

No, Japanese cartoons were rife with that sort of thing 10-15 years ago, too. I remember our college anime club showing an episode of some high school drama about playing tennis.

/it was worth sitting through to get to Excel Saga and Space Pirate Captain Harlock

rjakobi:You guys seriously need to go look at Gaki No Tsukai. Funniest damn thing on TV in years, positively Japanese and full of middle-aged men getting kicked in the butt by Thai boxers. Good way to kill a weekend.

I LOVE Gaki no Tsukai. But I do agree that most things on Japanese TV are pretty terrible. I do admit to really liking the quiz shows, though. I can't stand most of the dramas they show on TV, though. Apparently, overacting is the gold standard there.

UNC_Samurai:Straight to doom: True, even Anime these days has devolved into a bunch of crap, gone are the days of stuff like "Apocalypse Zero" where people got their heads used as nipple pasties, now it's all a bunch of cute people doing cute things.

No, Japanese cartoons were rife with that sort of thing 10-15 years ago, too. I remember our college anime club showing an episode of some high school drama about playing tennis.

/it was worth sitting through to get to Excel Saga and Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Allow me to clarify, it is now DOMINATED by the cute people doing cute things trend.

Nemo's Brother:Anonymous Bosch: Straight to doom: True, even Anime these days has devolved into a bunch of crap, gone are the days of stuff like "Apocalypse Zero" where people got their heads used as nipple pasties, now it's all a bunch of cute people doing cute things.

Nine of ten new anime are constructed using lists of fetishes taken from Japanese TVTropes, or a percentile table assembled by Japanese Gary Gygax. One girl with glasses, one loud excitable girl, at least one with enormous tits, one "adorably" shy girl, one psychotic girl who secretly likes the nonentity that serves as the nexus of this bullshiat... I don't know where the next Cowboy Bebop or Ghost in the Shell is coming from, but it sure isn't Japan.

/yes, glasses and tits are character traits in anime//that's part of the problem

I learned by trying to follow some recent JRPGs how horrible of story-tellers the modern Japanese culture is. I know that is a very broad statement, but I am only speaking in generalities. Their culture is full of xenophobic old people. They are dying as is their culture. It is now a wasteland of consumerism, advertising and rape.

I agree about the next big thing not coming from them. I don't know if it will come from America either. We are dying as a culture too, but not nearly as quickly. We do have some resistance to the corporate homogenizing of us all, if only in small pockets.

I'm guessing that it won't come from China, given that government repression is usually not helpful to the arts. What about India?

Nine of ten new anime are constructed using lists of fetishes taken from Japanese TVTropes, or a percentile table assembled by Japanese Gary Gygax. One girl with glasses, one loud excitable girl, at least one with enormous tits, one "adorably" shy girl, one psychotic girl who secretly likes the nonentity that serves as the nexus of this bullshiat... I don't know where the next Cowboy Bebop or Ghost in the Shell is coming from, but it sure isn't Japan.

/yes, glasses and tits are character traits in anime//that's part of the problem

Saw this coming about ten years ago. One of the main reasons I gave up on anime.

Although I will say I took a look at the recent Space Battleship Yamato remake and thought it was quite decent.

UNC_Samurai:Straight to doom: True, even Anime these days has devolved into a bunch of crap, gone are the days of stuff like "Apocalypse Zero" where people got their heads used as nipple pasties, now it's all a bunch of cute people doing cute things.

No, Japanese cartoons were rife with that sort of thing 10-15 years ago, too. I remember our college anime club showing an episode of some high school drama about playing tennis.

/it was worth sitting through to get to Excel Saga and Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Richard C Stanford:Nemo's Brother: Anonymous Bosch: Straight to doom: True, even Anime these days has devolved into a bunch of crap, gone are the days of stuff like "Apocalypse Zero" where people got their heads used as nipple pasties, now it's all a bunch of cute people doing cute things.

Nine of ten new anime are constructed using lists of fetishes taken from Japanese TVTropes, or a percentile table assembled by Japanese Gary Gygax. One girl with glasses, one loud excitable girl, at least one with enormous tits, one "adorably" shy girl, one psychotic girl who secretly likes the nonentity that serves as the nexus of this bullshiat... I don't know where the next Cowboy Bebop or Ghost in the Shell is coming from, but it sure isn't Japan.

/yes, glasses and tits are character traits in anime//that's part of the problem

I learned by trying to follow some recent JRPGs how horrible of story-tellers the modern Japanese culture is. I know that is a very broad statement, but I am only speaking in generalities. Their culture is full of xenophobic old people. They are dying as is their culture. It is now a wasteland of consumerism, advertising and rape.

I agree about the next big thing not coming from them. I don't know if it will come from America either. We are dying as a culture too, but not nearly as quickly. We do have some resistance to the corporate homogenizing of us all, if only in small pockets.

I'm guessing that it won't come from China, given that government repression is usually not helpful to the arts. What about India?

Richard C Stanford:Nemo's Brother: Anonymous Bosch: Straight to doom: True, even Anime these days has devolved into a bunch of crap, gone are the days of stuff like "Apocalypse Zero" where people got their heads used as nipple pasties, now it's all a bunch of cute people doing cute things.

Nine of ten new anime are constructed using lists of fetishes taken from Japanese TVTropes, or a percentile table assembled by Japanese Gary Gygax. One girl with glasses, one loud excitable girl, at least one with enormous tits, one "adorably" shy girl, one psychotic girl who secretly likes the nonentity that serves as the nexus of this bullshiat... I don't know where the next Cowboy Bebop or Ghost in the Shell is coming from, but it sure isn't Japan.

/yes, glasses and tits are character traits in anime//that's part of the problem

I learned by trying to follow some recent JRPGs how horrible of story-tellers the modern Japanese culture is. I know that is a very broad statement, but I am only speaking in generalities. Their culture is full of xenophobic old people. They are dying as is their culture. It is now a wasteland of consumerism, advertising and rape.

I agree about the next big thing not coming from them. I don't know if it will come from America either. We are dying as a culture too, but not nearly as quickly. We do have some resistance to the corporate homogenizing of us all, if only in small pockets.

I'm guessing that it won't come from China, given that government repression is usually not helpful to the arts. What about India?

Anonymous Bosch:I don't know where the next Cowboy Bebop or Ghost in the Shell is coming from, but it sure isn't Japan.

These are amusing examples, as this season has Space Dandy - done by the same director as Cowboy Bebop, and Ghost in the Shell Arise (although that's in the form of periodic movies). So yes, the next version of those shows are coming from Japan.

Nine of ten new anime are constructed using lists of fetishes taken from Japanese TVTropes, or a percentile table assembled by Japanese Gary Gygax. One girl with glasses, one loud excitable girl, at least one with enormous tits, one "adorably" shy girl, one psychotic girl who secretly likes the nonentity that serves as the nexus of this bullshiat... I don't know where the next Cowboy Bebop or Ghost in the Shell is coming from, but it sure isn't Japan.

/yes, glasses and tits are character traits in anime//that's part of the problem

Saw this coming about ten years ago. One of the main reasons I gave up on anime.

Although I will say I took a look at the recent Space Battleship Yamato remake and thought it was quite decent.

You mean aka "Battlestar Yamato"? It had it's moments but Ronald Moore could have sued somebody.

Nemo's Brother:Anonymous Bosch: Straight to doom: True, even Anime these days has devolved into a bunch of crap, gone are the days of stuff like "Apocalypse Zero" where people got their heads used as nipple pasties, now it's all a bunch of cute people doing cute things.

Nine of ten new anime are constructed using lists of fetishes taken from Japanese TVTropes, or a percentile table assembled by Japanese Gary Gygax. One girl with glasses, one loud excitable girl, at least one with enormous tits, one "adorably" shy girl, one psychotic girl who secretly likes the nonentity that serves as the nexus of this bullshiat... I don't know where the next Cowboy Bebop or Ghost in the Shell is coming from, but it sure isn't Japan.

/yes, glasses and tits are character traits in anime//that's part of the problem

I learned by trying to follow some recent JRPGs how horrible of story-tellers the modern Japanese culture is. I know that is a very broad statement, but I am only speaking in generalities. Their culture is full of xenophobic old people. They are dying as is their culture. It is now a wasteland of consumerism, advertising and rape.

I agree about the next big thing not coming from them. I don't know if it will come from America either. We are dying as a culture too, but not nearly as quickly. We do have some resistance to the corporate homogenizing of us all, if only in small pockets.

I'm not going to disagree really, I'm just going to say old JRPGs had utterly shiat, nonsensical, stories too. They just got lost in the god awful translations, and we've got the rose-tinted memories coming into effect. I've been playing since the FF: Mystic quest game on SNES was rentable at my local Blockbuster. Played pretty much every JRPG in existance. One of my absolute favorites is probably the Tales of Vesperia, from like 5 years ago. You also have to remember that 90% of stuff produced is shiat. Back in 'the day' we only got anime so amazingly, astoundingly, good, that it made financial sense to go through the licensing and localization process (I know, fansubs etc. I watched a LOT of these too), so only the cream of the crop really made it into the gestalt mind and stayed there.

Part of the problem is the cost to produce these games. They cost so much that most developers can't afford to really ship a new and interesting product. They can only, financially, afford to ship something with pretty much the standard appeal, and maybe throw in a couple new widgets.

Just like how WRPGs and shooters and other American games are small, incremental changes compared to previous games, building on a theme and an IP.

I also get the feeling that Japan has a lot of focus on individual designers as sort of cult heroes; you have to bag Dude Y to do your story, dude Z to do your music, because people associate them strongly with great games, and if it doesn't have them it has to be bad, while if it does it has to be good. So you kinda get the same recycled character designs and story concepts because that's what sells and it's what these guys know.

As someone who never really like anime to begin with, that show is a single glimmer of hope out of the dismal anime wasteland.

I'll be brutally honest here. I tried to read the manga and got bored. Too much angst and 'whaaa' and dialogue; I like my manga like comic books, a lot of action and fighting and stuff, minimal discussion, and that shiat was page after page of discussion. When I read, I want to sit down and read a book, and I probably finish off one a week. When I do manga, I want to look at the fight scenes and such.

Most of American TV is shiat and has always been so. But we are actually in a golden period for tv or are at the end of it, I think. Hollywood has been as vapid and useless as Japanese TV for a decade or two as has our mainstream music industry, but tv has a few gems.

I might disagree... tv seems to ne gettimg better... Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad, American Horror Story, Mad Men, hell, for BIG NETWORK, even Lost ( discount the ending)? Three is a lot of better stuff available now... just go back to TV in the late seventies, early eighties and compare...

Mztlplx:UNC_Samurai: Straight to doom: True, even Anime these days has devolved into a bunch of crap, gone are the days of stuff like "Apocalypse Zero" where people got their heads used as nipple pasties, now it's all a bunch of cute people doing cute things.

No, Japanese cartoons were rife with that sort of thing 10-15 years ago, too. I remember our college anime club showing an episode of some high school drama about playing tennis.

/it was worth sitting through to get to Excel Saga and Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Pretty much spot on. I didn't watch much tv when I lived there, though...if I watched anything, it was on my laptop, and mostly Western shows (sorry, but the Japanese dub of X-files was absolutely awful to watch).

King Something:Mztlplx: UNC_Samurai: Straight to doom: True, even Anime these days has devolved into a bunch of crap, gone are the days of stuff like "Apocalypse Zero" where people got their heads used as nipple pasties, now it's all a bunch of cute people doing cute things.

No, Japanese cartoons were rife with that sort of thing 10-15 years ago, too. I remember our college anime club showing an episode of some high school drama about playing tennis.

/it was worth sitting through to get to Excel Saga and Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Try Attack on Titan.

/with you Excel Saga. That one just cracks me up every time.

Also try Kill La Kill.

//also with you on Excel Saga

Incidentally, the English translation of the final volume of Excel Saga just came out recently.

There are some interesting and flat-out loopy things still being made.

World Conquest Zvezda Plot is pretty odd (and funny). Basically, cute little girl leads criminal gang that conquers the world. And episode 3 went waay into left field with a bit about smokers...

Witch Craft Works toddles along and then drops some nice odd stuff on you, like armies of evil half-robot rabbits. The ending credits video is worth watching all on its own (cute bouncy J-pop to animations of cute chibi witches being tortured).

Arpeggio of Blue Steel turned out to be worth watching, too. Interesting stuff about what makes people people - human or not.

TFA actually complains that there are too few fiction series and that those that exist are too short for any real complexity due to predominance of one-season contracts.

// And most of the other complaints actually compare directly to western TV - the food shows are bad not because they're food shows, but because they're all about eating food (western shows are about cooking it) and cultural norms prevent judges from ever saying anything but an undescriptive "it's good" (they're not allowed to insult the food, that being the only other interesting thing about western cooking shows).

I haven't seen Psycho Pass mentioned yet. That's definitely one of the better new shows. I suggest it if you're looking for new stuff.

trialpha:Anonymous Bosch: I don't know where the next Cowboy Bebop or Ghost in the Shell is coming from, but it sure isn't Japan.

These are amusing examples, as this season has Space Dandy - done by the same director as Cowboy Bebop, and Ghost in the Shell Arise (although that's in the form of periodic movies). So yes, the next version of those shows are coming from Japan.

I don't think you can compare Space Dandy and Cowboy Bebop. Space Dandy is a comedy and nowhere near as good as Cowboy Bebop.

"very few prime-time fictional series in Japan receive more than a one-season contract at a time"

Mmm, no. Very few prime-time fictional series ever receive more than a one-season contract because they were never meant to. Most fictional series are based on a book or manga, and they usually tell the entire story within that one season. They never had any intention of ever making more seasons. There are a few drama that have exceptions: Hana Yori Dango, Iryuu, BOSS, SP, Bloody Monday, Keizoku, although they still weren't intended to have multiple seasons, they just happened (usually a few years later).

They literally have four tv seasons (called "kur" - kuuru) in Japan so there will be a couple of new dramas on every big network three or four times a year. For that reason they need to cast big, popular "tarento" because they need to attract new viewers to a new show every few months. They can't really afford to take too much of a risk.